Honoring USM Hoops’ Past While Building Toward the Future

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Every place has a story, and learning that story helps you understand why it matters. You cannot fully appreciate a place until you take the time to learn the history that shaped it.

History gives you a better sense of why certain buildings matter, why certain names carry weight, and why people hold on so tightly to memories that happened years before.

For Southern Miss, Reed Green Coliseum is one of those places. It’s more than an older arena sitting on campus. Reed Green Coliseum is a building filled with Southern Miss history and memories passed down from one generation of Golden Eagle fans to the next.

Reed Green Coliseum opened in 1965, and the first game came on Dec. 6 of that same year when Southern Miss beat Southeastern Louisiana, 71-69. Just a few days later, on December 11, the building was formally dedicated during a game against Alabama. From that point on, Reed Green became the home for Southern Miss Basketball.

Reed Green Coliseum’s Early Days

The coliseum was named after Bernard Reed Green, a man who gave much of his life to Southern Miss. Green was a former player, coach, and athletic director. He played football, basketball, and baseball. He later became the head football coach and, in 1949, the school’s first full-time athletic director.

Reed Green helped build something that mattered. He helped move Southern Miss Athletics forward, and his name still serves as a reminder that what we enjoy today was built by people who gave years of their lives to make it possible.

That’s why honoring the past is important. If you don’t know the history, it is easy to look at Reed Green Coliseum and only see an old building that needs work. But when you learn the history, you begin to see it differently. You begin to see the players, coaches, crowds, graduation ceremonies, concerts, and the community moments that made the building special.

USM’s Storied On-Court History Stands the Test of Time

Reed Green Coliseum has seen some of the biggest basketball moments in Southern Miss history.

The 1986-1987 men’s basketball team, coached by M.K. Turk, became one of the most remembered teams in school history. The Golden Eagles went 23-11 and won the NIT Championship after beating Ole Miss, St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Nebraska, and La Salle on the way to Madison Square Garden. For Southern Miss basketball, that season still means something nearly 40 years later.

The Lady Eagles have their own history inside Reed Green. The 1993-1994 women’s basketball team finished 26-5, won the Metro Conference regular-season championship, earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, hosted the first and second rounds at Reed Green, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.

Those are just two prime examples of many, but they’re the kinds of moments that turn a building into something more than concrete, seats, and a scoreboard.

Look to the Future: What’s Next for Reed Green

Now, the next chapter for Reed Green Coliseum is here. A building that has stood since 1965 is currently undergoing much-needed renovations. Southern Miss released renderings of Reed Green Coliseum in 2024, featuring the phrase “where legacy is turned into vision.” That phrase fits perfectly with the vision behind the renovations happening at Reed Green Coliseum today. It is about taking the building’s history and preparing it for what it can still become.

Southern Miss Athletic Director Jeremy McClain made it clear that this project has been years in the making. There has been work behind the scenes, adjustments made along the way, and a lot of planning to get the project to this point. For McClain, Reed Green matters because of what it means to the basketball programs, the university, and the community.

One of the biggest priorities is the front entrance. McClain wanted a “wow factor.” He wanted people driving down Fourth Street to stop at the red light, look over, and want to see the building. That matters because first impressions matter. Reed Green has history, but now the building’s exterior needs to match the pride people have always felt for what happened inside it.

Another major priority is the new basketball practice facility. The plan includes a practice facility with six basketball hoops, giving the men’s and women’s basketball programs a place to work, develop, and recruit at a higher level.

The renovation plans also include updated concessions and restrooms, new corner scoreboards and banner boards, chairback seating on the sidelines, 200 premium loge-style seats, 625 sideline premium seats, a widened concourse, and a new north entrance with a lobby, ticketing, and arena offices.

The new seating capacity is expected to be around 6,800 for basketball and 5,000 for outdoor events such as concerts. That is an important part of this project, because Reed Green has never belonged only to basketball. It has also been a place for graduations, concerts, community events, and other major moments for the Pine Belt.

The project is built around a $35 million budget, though adjustments can always happen with a project of this size. When the renderings were first released, the hope was to break ground in spring 2025 with construction possibly taking up to 24 months because the basketball teams would still need to use Reed Green during the process. By 2026, the project had entered the bidding process, with work listed for the existing coliseum, a new practice-facility addition on the south side, new restrooms and concession stands, a new entry lobby with ticketing, and interior seating renovations. 

USM Excited for How Improved Reed Green Will Help Basketball Programs

Southern Miss President Dr. Joe Paul summed up the bigger picture well when he said, “Athletics is your front porch.” That is what invites people in. That is what welcomes alumni back home. That is what helps grow student enrollment, private giving, and the university’s national profile.

In a 1-on-1 interview with Dalton Trigg on the Nasty Bunch & Beyond podcast, Southern Miss President Dr. Joe Paul gave his thoughts on what the Reed Green Coliseum renovations could mean for the future of the basketball programs.

“Well, the Reed Green piece is going to be very important to recruiting great players,” Dr. Paul said. “Improving that environment will help us in many, many ways. And again, we’ve got to have uncommon success.

“We’re not historically a basketball school. We had a great run with MK Turk, won the NIT with Clarence Weatherspoon, went to the NCAA tournament a couple of times with James Green. … (Larry) Eustachy took us once. (Donnie) Tyndall took us once. But there’s not that long tradition like in baseball. So we’ve got to find the ‘magic sauce’ to have uncommon success. And when that happens, and I’ve been there… people will come.”

That is both the challenge and the opportunity for Southern Miss basketball.

Dr. Paul also looked back on what Reed Green Coliseum once felt like in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Those were nights when the building was packed, the energy was different, and the crowd helped make Reed Green feel alive. He remembered those crowds being probably “outside of the fire marshal’s code” because of how many people would show up for games.

Who knows if Southern Miss basketball can experience something like that again in today’s college athletics climate, but one thing is clear: giving Reed Green Coliseum a long-awaited facelift certainly will not hurt the program’s chances.

The history is already there. The memories are already there. Now, the investment is being made to help Southern Miss basketball create new ones.

The question now is simple: Can Southern Miss build that kind of energy again?

No one knows exactly what the future of college athletics will look like. The transfer portal, NIL, recruiting, and facilities have changed the game. However, these renovations will give the program a better chance to recruit. It gives fans a better experience. It gives the community another reason to come back inside the building.

As someone who moved into this area, I have learned that you cannot fully appreciate where Southern Miss is going until you understand where it has been. History gives you perspective. It helps you see why a place like Reed Green Coliseum means so much to so many people.

It is where fans watched M.K. Turk’s teams build something special. It is where Clarence Weatherspoon became one of the great names in Southern Miss basketball history. It is where the Lady Eagles made their Sweet Sixteen run. It is where families have gathered for graduations. It is where students, alumni, coaches, players, and fans have shared moments they will never forget.

And now, it is where Southern Miss is trying to build that same winning culture and atmosphere on the hardwood once again.